Arctic Dreams, page 51
Wisdom, xxvii, 38–40, 248
of Eskimos, 38–41, 298–99, 411
Wolf, xix, 191, 268, 350, 393
population wiped out, 49
Wrangel Island, 32, 33, 81, 155, 156, 157, 339, 371n, 388
Wright, John Kirtland, 367
Y-K (Yukon-Kuskokwim) Delta, 163–64
Yttygran Island, 412
Yukon territory, 292–93
Zoos, capture of animals for,
muskox, 74
narwhals, 143
polar bears, 112
Maps
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MY DEBTS ARE GREAT. And my sense of gratitude, especially to those with whom I traveled in the Arctic, is very deep. First to Lloyd Lowry, Bob Nelson, and Kathy Frost, knowledgeable and sterling companions, whom I accompanied on coastal surveys in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering seas. To Bob Stephenson, with whom I traveled extensively in Alaska: in the Brooks Range, in Nelchina Basin, on the upper Yukon, and to Saint Lawrence Island. To Kerry Finley, for his companionship and assistance in northern Baffin Island. To Don Ljungblad, who introduced me to the spring ice in Bering Sea and to bowhead whales. To Ray Schweinsburg, who introduced me to polar bears in the Canadian Archipelago. To Rick Will, Becky Cole, Shirleen Smith, and Bill Abercrombie, my companions on Banks Island; and Bruce Dinneford, my companion at Pingok Island.
I am indebted as well to the officers and men of the MV Soodoc, especially Master Pitt Schroter, Ice Master Niels Jorgensen, third mate Jean-Luc Bédard, and second engineer Andre Gill, for their accommodation and patience with my questions. I also wish to thank the officers and crew of the NOAA ship Oceanographer and the men working on the Panarctic Oils drill rigs “Cape Mamen” and “Whitefish,” and at the Panarctic base camp at Rae Point, Melville Island, for their assistance and cordiality.
Several institutions provided extensive logistical support during periods of field research—the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in the United States and, in Canada, Polar Continental Shelf Project, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada; Wildlife Management Division, Department of Renewable Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories; and Atmospheric Environment Service, Department of Environment Canada. I would also like to thank the public relations staffs at Panarctic Oils, Sohio Alaska Petroleum Company, and Cominco for their help.
Without the support of Colin Crosbie of Crosbie Shipping I would not have been able to retrace the sea route of John Davis and William Parry. Without the assistance of George Hobson, Director of Polar Continental Shelf, and the willingness of pilot Duncan Grant to seemingly always make room, I could not have traveled as extensively as I was able to in the Canadian Archipelago. I thank each of them sincerely.
Many scientists gave unstintingly of their time in lengthy interviews. I would especially like to thank, in addition to those already mentioned, Anne Gunn, Kent Jingfors, Thor Larsen, Dennis Andriashek, John Burns, Mitch Taylor, Martha Robus, Cliff Hickey, Peter Schledermann, and Bob Janes. Christian Vibe, Frank Miller, Murray Newman, Rick Davis, James Helmer, Diane Lyons, Harriet Critchley, Poul Henrichsen, Greg Galik, Sam Luciani, and Guy Palmer also provided critical interviews.
I feel inadequate in trying to convey my sense of appreciation to the people of various native villages, for their deference and understanding in the face of my intrusion. Among those who were generous with their time I especially wish to pay my respects to George Noongwook, Vernon Slwooko, Alex Akeya, Bob Ahgook, Oolaiuk Nakitavak, and David Kalluk for invaluable interviews and experiences. Qujannamiik.
Often during my travels I was in need of a meal and a place to sleep. I would like to offer private words of gratitude to all who opened their homes to me.
Peter Schledermann generously provided library privileges and working space at the Arctic Institute of North America in Calgary; Colleen Cabot provided a place to work at the Teton Science School, Kelly, Wyoming, during a critical period. Martin Antonetti and Kerry Finley helped with Latin and Inuktitut translation, respectively. Many individuals graciously answered requests for documents. I would especially like to acknowledge Arthur Credland of Kingston Upon Hull’s Town Docks Museum for records of the whaling ship Cumbrian; Steve Amstrup, Malcolm Ramsay, and Gordon Stenhouse for material on polar bears; David Gray for material on muskoxen; Jim Levison for information about loons; Bud Fay for material on walrus; Anthony Higgins for data on Oodaaq Island; and Marty Grossman for information on Edward Israel.
I would like to express my personal and professional gratitude to Lewis Lapham at Harper’s, Robley Wilson at North American Review, John Rasmus at Outside, and Paul Perry at Running for their support while I was at work on the manuscript.
Several people with whom I spoke only briefly were nevertheless instrumental in helping me clarify my ideas and intentions. I would like to express my appreciation for that reason to Ted Muraro, Maurice Haycock, JØrn Thomassen, Martin Luce, and Keith Quinlan.
Some of the ideas in this book grew out of conversations with friends little concerned, directly, with the Arctic. It is difficult to be precise about such debts, but they are no less real than those to a traveling companion. I would like to thank in this capacity Dick Showalter, Tony Beasley, and China Galland.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Isabel Stirling, who helped me greatly as a research assistant and typist.
Finally, I wish to thank my editor, Laurie Schieffelin, and my agent, Peter Schults, for their faith during a long period of work and for their discerning reading of the manuscript at various stages.
And my wife, Sandra, whose mind and character and support, as always, were like shelter.
My deep and humble gratitude.
A Biography of Barry Lopez
Barry Lopez (b. 1945) is the author of thirteen works of fiction and nonfiction including his landmark study of the Far North, Arctic Dreams, and several collections of essays and short stories. He writes regularly for a variety of magazines including Harper’s and National Geographic, and his work is frequently anthologized in such collections as Best American Essays, Best American Non-Required Reading, Best Spiritual Writing, and the “best-of” collections periodically issued by Outside, the Paris Review, Orion, the Georgia Review, and other publications.
He is a recipient of the National Book Award, the Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing, the Christopher Award for humanitarian writing, the Friends of American Writers Award in fiction, and major awards from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Geographers, and the New York Public Library. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, the Lannan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Parents’ Choice Awards. He is an elected Fellow of the Explorers Club and serves on the honorary boards of Theater Grottesco in Santa Fe, the Mountain Lion Foundation, Cities of Refuge, and Reader to Reader, among other groups and institutions.
Lopez grew up in agricultural Southern California and New York City, attended college in the Midwest, and has lived in rural Oregon since 1968. His work has taken him to nearly seventy countries and he has spent long periods of time in the field with research scientists and traditional hunters in such places as the interior of Antarctica, northern Kenya, the Canadian Arctic, and the Northern Territory in Australia.
Lopez is often described as a travel or nature writer but his work is difficult to categorize. His principal concern in nonfiction is the relationship between human societies and the places they occupy; in his fiction, his characters deal most often with issues of personal identity and intimacy. He has also been described as a philosopher and social critic.
In both his fiction and nonfiction, Lopez draws heavily on the thinking of indigenous peoples, most often Native Americans, Eskimos, and Aborigines. His New York Times bestseller, Crow and Weasel, an illustrated fable, is steeped in indigenous North American tradition, and his pioneering work on wolves, Of Wolves and Men, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a finalist for the National Book Award, devotes several chapters to Native American and Eskimo perceptions of Canis lupus.
After a benign encounter with a polar bear in the Chukchi Sea in 1981, Lopez, who until then had been a landscape photographer and writer, put his cameras away. (He explains why in an essay called “Learning to See” in About This Life.) He has continued, however, to work with a loose-knit group of photographers, composers, painters, playwrights, and other artists and artisans on a range of projects. He collaborates regularly with book artists, for example, on fine-press limited editions of his writing, and recently worked alongside ceramist Richard Rowland to design a reconciliation ceremony between the Comanche Nation and Texas Tech University. (He wrote about Rowland in an essay called “Effleurage,” also in About This Life.)
Although he rarely teaches, Barry Lopez has been, the distinguished visiting scholar at Texas Tech University since 2003, where his papers are archived in the Sowell Family Collection in Literature, Community and the Natural World. He works regularly with graduate and undergraduate students there, both in class and on field trips. In 1989, he was the W. Harold and Martha Welch visiting chair in American studies at the University of Notre Dame, and in 2006, he was the Glenn distinguished professor at Washington and Lee University.
In recent years, Lopez has turned his attention increasingly toward the plight of humanity in various parts of the world and to the impact of globalization, war, and climate change on the spiritual and social lives of both modern and traditional peoples. He is currently at work on a book about his travel experiences.
Learn more about the author at www.barrylopez.com.
Lopez in 1948 in California’s San Fernando Valley. The rider third from left is his mother, Mary, who, incidentally, made the shirt he is wearing.
Lopez at Christmas circa 1951. From left: family friend Grace Van Sheck; Lopez’s younger brother, Dennis; their mother, Mary; and Lopez. Grace’s husband was Sidney Van Sheck, who had been Mary’s first husband. The Van Shecks befriended Mary and her sons after Mary divorced the boys’ father. (Photo courtesy of Sidney Van Sheck.)
Lopez as a junior at Loyola School, a Jesuit preparatory school in New York City, in 1961.
Lopez as a junior at the University of Notre Dame, having dinner at the home of Odey and Nettie Cassell with his roommate Pete Lewis in February 1965. This was one of several visits Lopez made to the Cassells’ farm near Cass, West Virginia, which he later wrote about. (Photo courtesy of Pete Lewis.)
Lopez (right) with Alaska Department of Fish and Game wolf biologist Robert Stephenson, radio-collaring sedated wolves in Nelchina Basin, Alaska, in March 1976. (Photo courtesy of Craig Lofstedt.)
Lopez carrying a sedated eight-year-old female wolf in Nelchina Basin, Alaska, in March 1976. Field biologist Robert Stephenson is behind Lopez, who is conducting research for Of Wolves and Men. (Photo courtesy of Craig Lofstedt.)
Lopez at an undisturbed Anasazi ruin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon while on a 1982 expedition with anthropologists Robert Euler and Trinkle Jones. (Photo courtesy of Robert Euler.)
Lopez on the upper Boro River in Botswana in 1987. The group of seven with whom he was traveling was attacked by this wounded male hippo. While others attempted to maneuver their boats around the highly territorial animal, Lopez (left) and his friend Ben (right) kept the hippo distracted on the opposite side of the river. (Photo courtesy of Michele Chapman and Margaret Stemp.)
Lopez (left) in a sterile clean suit, with then-Senator Al Gore (right) at a drilling site for ice cores at 6,000 feet on Newell Glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, in November 1988. Gore traveled to this remote site to acquaint himself with ice-core drilling technology and the field processing of uncontaminated sections of ice core, which would later provide data for the study of global climate change.
Lopez at camp about twenty kilometers from the South Pole during an expedition to collect snow samples in Antarctica in 1988. The temperature was -29°F.
Lopez in situ with a sixty-eight-pound meteorite on the Polar Plateau at about 88° south in December 1998. Lopez and the five meteoriticists he was traveling with established an unheated field camp at Graves Nunataks, about 120 miles from the South Pole. During their field season, the group found and collected 192 meteorites.
Lopez (left) with expedition leader John Schutt in the Transantarctic Mountains in December 1998, at the start of a forty-five-day field season, picking out a route across a crevasse field to Graves Nunataks, the expedition’s destination.
Left to right: Juanita Pahdopony of Comanche Nation College; Comanche tribal chairman Wallace Coffey; Lopez; and Kim Winkelman, president of Comanche Nation College, at a reconciliation ceremony between Texas Tech University and the Comanche Nation at the Comanche tribal headquarters in Lawton, Oklahoma, in September 2007.
Lopez (left) with Archbishop Desmond Tutu (right) at the second Quest for Global Healing conference in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, in May 2006.
Lopez with his wife, Debra Gwartney, and his stepdaughters. Left to right: Amanda, Mary, Stephanie, Debra, Mollie, and Barry, at Stephanie’s home in Alford, Massachusetts, on the occasion of her graduation as an Ada Comstock Scholar from Smith College, in 2010. (Photo courtesy of Otis Lougheed.)
Lopez and Debra with their grandchildren, Ezabelle and Owen Knight, at the couple’s home on the west slope of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains in 2011. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Woodruff.)
Lopez with his grandson, Owen Knight, at the USS Arizona Memorial, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 2012. (Photo courtesy of Debra Gwartney.)
Lopez and Debra at a rooftop restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey, with Hagia Sofia in the background, in May 2012.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to quote from “The Field of the Caribou,” copyright © 1966 by John Haines, reprinted from Winter News by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Copyright © 1986 by Barry Holstun Lopez
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
978-1-4804-0914-9
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Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
